Scott Greenbaum, MD, FACS, Assistant Clinical Professor, New York University School of Medicine discusses the optimal time for a patient to get cataract surgery. Physicians should advise their patients to get cataract surgery when the cataracts interfere with everyday activities such as reading and driving. Risks of cataract surgery are the same as those associated with general surgery (infection, bleeding) and occur roughly once in every 5,000-10,000 cases.

3 Benefits of Cataract Surgery Include: 

1. Restoring patient’s vision to be as good or better than it was previously

2. Can create monovision (vision for distance in one eye, reading in the other).

3. Certain procedures to eliminate dependence on glasses can be performed as part of cataract surgery